The Hippo Roller Challenge

How about a competition where say writing a blog entry for TU or minimum 1000 characters in the wiki is the only way to win? Prize could be something rather desired, like an iPad perhaps...

My other thought, and I've actually already written the code for this some months ago, is to ask people to email in/tweet their favourite restaurant in their home city. Those are rather short entries of course, but seeing how easy it is to do, and it doesn't require signing up on TP, I think it might gain some traction. There's a bit of an issue with knowing which ones actually get in or not, but nothing more serious than saying that any official insertion into the guide actually has to be sanctioned by a real TP user.

TU?Uhm, why email or tweet. If one is not signed in, how does he know of the comp? On Twitter? I really am a nutcase regarding all those media on the internet, but maybe you can clear this for me, as I don't understand. If you want something really desired, consider a tampon: you can do virtually anything with that, unlike an iPad

No seriously, for an iPad you really need to do more in my opinion. For example, start at least 5 new articles which are mentioned in the missing articles lists, like in the projects UNESCO sites or cities without an articles. Might be less of an incentive than 1000 characters, so maybe not a good idea in general. Just my opinion. Maybe it should get more attention on other sites to be linked to TP travelguide for that reason?

How about a competition where say writing a blog entry for TU or minimum 1000 characters in the wiki is the only way to win? Prize could be something rather desired, like an iPad perhaps...

My other thought, and I've actually already written the code for this some months ago, is to ask people to email in/tweet their favourite restaurant in their home city. Those are rather short entries of course, but seeing how easy it is to do, and it doesn't require signing up on TP, I think it might gain some traction. There's a bit of an issue with knowing which ones actually get in or not, but nothing more serious than saying that any official insertion into the guide actually has to be sanctioned by a real TP user.

TU?Uhm, why email or tweet. If one is not signed in, how does he know of the comp? On Twitter? I really am a nutcase regarding all those media on the internet, but maybe you can clear this for me, as I don't understand. If you want something really desired, consider a tampon: you can do virtually anything with that, unlike an iPad

No seriously, for an iPad you really need to do more in my opinion. For example, start at least 5 new articles which are mentioned in the missing articles lists, like in the projects UNESCO sites or cities without an articles. Might be less of an incentive than 1000 characters, so maybe not a good idea in general. Just my opinion. Maybe it should get more attention on other sites to be linked to TP travelguide for that reason?

My 2 cents. Mike

Have an issue with TU, Mike?

A TU article/wiki contribution competition could definitely work. An iPad as the prize does seem a rather "large-ticket" item for the amount of effort someone would actually put in to it. I do think if it were open to non-TP members also, and a non-member wins, the members who do contribute content regularly would be a bit miffed. (They've taken the time to sign up for TP and be active in the community.)

TU would be easy enough to monitor and judge for content as TU authors can only submit an article. They do not have editing capability - that's strictly an editor's job. But, the Editors make for a good panel of judges. Choosing a winner should be based on content only, not the visual aspects of the published piece. The photos are not always submitted by the author and the Editors are responsible for the look of the finished product. Such a competition could be open to non-members as well. (Articles can be e-mailed in already.)

I like Mike's suggestion for additions to the missing articles/UNESCO sections if something as coveted as an iPad is the prize.

Having gone kicking and screaming into the social networking arena myself, I have found Twitter a very useful tool for disseminating information to a large audience. It's quick, easy, and keeps info concise. E-mail works very well on TravelBlogs so I would think it could just as useful for these instances on TP. There is cross-over already which could be advantageous in drawing more participants, especially if they can use Twitter and e-mail as avenues.

I guess I'm thinking along two different lines. One is to engage the community to contributing, and the other is to get as many people as possible contributing content, however little it is.

Obviously the hope is that offering up an iPad as a prize to non Travellerspoint members for contributing something small is that it spreads automatically across something like Twitter. If you get a 100 retweets, that means the information is going out to over 100 000 people, quite likely way more. If 10% of those submit a one-liner with their fav restaurant, that's 10 000 new lines being added to the wiki, which still adds up to a lot of content Every obstacle you put in the way of a user contributing is going to decrease the chance you have of them getting involved of course, so this strategy relies on keeping the system as basic as possible. Other advantages are 1. that once you've contributed once, it's a lot easier to get more involved after that and 2. that it's the kind of thing that is more likely to be picked up on by media and written about, thus driving even more traffic and involvement to the wiki.

There's also some downsides, the biggest probably being that if it doesn't get any traction, you end up having to give an ipad to someone while the contributions are only minimal. The other big downside is that the content can't be traced to a TP user, so there's manual work involved in getting it into the guide. It can be automated quite a lot, but not all the way through without it being a major spam problem.

So that's the 'promote externally' option a little more hashed out. Then there's trying to engage the existing community as much as possible. Clearly offering up an iPad there is a way of rewarding members, and even if there are only a handful of contributions, it's a fun exercise where the winner is (usually) very deserving of the prize

The other big downside is that the content can't be traced to a TP user, so there's manual work involved in getting it into the guide. It can be automated quite a lot, but not all the way through without it being a major spam problem.

Then there's trying to engage the existing community as much as possible. Clearly offering up an iPad there is a way of rewarding members, and even if there are only a handful of contributions, it's a fun exercise where the winner is (usually) very deserving of the prize

Let's say the competition does take off, who ends up doing the manual labor for the external contributions? The wiki Mods, Admin, a handful of volunteers? Just asking as it could be an arduous task depending on the amount of time it would run. I still think it's a good idea Twitter is a great way to spread the word. I only have 32 (personal) followers but some of them have massive contacts.

Nice thing with an internal one as well, and depending on the answer to the above question, if members are used to insert the external entries, they should still be able to compete in the internal one. Again, don't know how the inserting external stuff will work so just speculating.